Shunning and Excommunication

In some churches, leaving has a price. Members who stop believing, marry outside, come out or break the rules are removed, and the rest are told to keep their distance. Sometimes that includes their own parents. It's usually explained as love: if the one who left feels the loss, maybe they'll come back.

Churches have to deal with real wrongdoing, and Jesus himself gave a process for it. But it's worth reading that process in the chapter where he gave it, beside everything else he said there. You don't need anyone's permission to ask what he would do about the one who left.

Measured against the center